The drum of war beats evermore. The confrontation between Zod with his family and The Green Lantern Corps draws ever closer. Will the two powers clash in this chapter? Or will the tension continue to rise, will Venditti make the tension so thick that you can cut it with a knife? Warning the following review will contain spoilers. So be sure read your comic before reading this review. You have been warned.

One of the more interesting aspects of this issue was Kyle’s personality change. While most fans will be expecting Kyle to show an increase in power and struggle to deal with said power. I don’t believe any fan could have foreseen Hal’s personality take over Kyle.This should have a larger impact going forward but for now I will enjoy seeing Kyle Rayner become a diet Hal Jordan. I’ve always seen Kyle as a cornball character so to see him with a dash of Hal’s personality makes for great humor. However I do hope that Venditti plans to explore this idea even further.

You wanna know what one of my favorite aspect of superhero comics is? It’s the verbal confrontation between a stubborn hero and a more stubborn villain. It’s weird and a bit cliche but it’s still deeply enjoy it. The scene with Hal and Zod is a perfect example of how to take something that has been a thousand times and still make it great. Zod doesn’t do the stereotypical explain the plan, but instead shifts the the loss of Krypton to the fault of the Green Lantern Corps. Zod still retains his intimidation but in the vain of great villains, he refuses to see himself in the wrong and you as a reader can side with him. This General Zod still reads like every other incarnation of the character, but Venditti adds a dash of depth to him. It makes him more compelling yet still terrifying.

A section in particular that didn’t sit well with me was John’s confrontation with the Guardians. It’s already been firmly established that the newly reinstated Guardians want to prove themselves different than past Guardians. Yet the scene played out as if the dynamic hasn’t changed one bit. This is most likely due to Venditti wanting to create tension but it just feels counterproductive to this new paradigm shift. I wasn’t expecting John to completely trust the new Guardians right away or for the Guardians to become shoot first ask questions later, this scene just felt like something from the past that just felt odd after all we’ve read in recent issues.

What more can I say about Rafa Sandoval? I love the energy he brings to each issue he draws, even with pages that don’t have a lot going on radiate with energy. Sandoval’s storytelling remains among the best in current comics today, he doesn’t sacrifice his storytelling for something bombastic. Yet somehow he manages to still serve up thrilling splash pages. I wish that more people were talking about how amazingly talented Sandoval is. He deserves to be in the upper echelon of current popular artist, but for now I’ll continue to sing his praises and enjoy his work on this series while I still can.

Even though the actual battle hasn’t started yet I still deeply enjoyed it. Outside of seeing John argue with the Guardians like the old times (despite John reminiscing about the old days), this was another knock out issue of Hal Jordan…